Samsung YP-K3 (2GB)

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Features
It's a pity the YP-K3 does not include video playback. Like the YP-Z3, the screen works well for pictures and it's too bad support is not extended to videos. The YP-K3 lets the user listen to radio, read text files and view pictures on top of music playback, which is pretty close to what the iPod nano is capable of.

	It's so sleek, it's illegal.

The YP-K3 supports ID3 tags and this is shown by how music is arranged by Artists, Albums, Playlists and Song Tracks. Samsung has kept the same animated blue dots (that morph into different icons) in the main menu from the K5. We also like how the display fades to a screensaver of your choosing (analog clock, various animation graphics, photos).

The new Media Studio software that's packaged with the YP-K3 is frankly gorgeous and feels like a hybrid of both Apple's iTunes and Sony's SonicStage. Most of the flab from the earlier versions had been ironed out and the software has a notably clean, spaced-out feel, elegant graphics user interface and tab browsing to access different features. There is also an inclusion of a music store feature that lets users choose between a subscription-based (all you can listen to) and pay-per-download account.

In a nod to the music sommelier feature found in Panasonic's music management software, which analyses songs by their acoustic characteristics, the Media Studio has a scaled-down version called My Music Style. Clicking the My Style button will have the software analyzing all songs in the active window and classifying them according to four styles: Passionate, cheerful, sweet and quiet.

In our test of the software, it was spot on, sometimes. The program had surprised us such as when it classified Garbage's Boys Wanna Fight as "cheerful". We think it's a lack of categories that's limiting the software. After all, fighting can be considered a cheerful activity, depending on who's on the receiving end.

Besides being able to burn CDs, rip music and edit ID3 tags, the Media Studio also has a song rating feature, though it's not available on the YP-K3. Like the smart playlist feature in iTunes, Samsung's own is called auto albums. It allows users to input multiple rule filters such as song ratings, play count and artist name, and import the playlist into the YP-K3.

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